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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29879034">Iron Birds of Fortune</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/00Wandering_Ghost00/pseuds/00Wandering_Ghost00'>00Wandering_Ghost00</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Progenitor Trilogy [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Action/Adventure, Attempt at Humor, Background Romance, Continuity stew, Drama, M/M, Mostly IDW (2005-2018) and G1, No Smut, Not Beta Read, Slow Burn, War, Worldbuilding, Written by a non-native English speaker, first draft, wacky inventions</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 02:53:42</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,676</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29879034</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/00Wandering_Ghost00/pseuds/00Wandering_Ghost00</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"Hotlink’s personal logfile #143</p>
<p>We are the Seekers. The deadly warbirds of Cybertron, the elite guardians of the Decepticon Empire. Such fancy titles for a bunch of thugs and rejects. It almost makes one’s spark swell with pride. </p>
<p>Talking about pride… My little optics spy the majestic frame of our esteemed leader, perching on some rubble looking over a ruined street. We all flock to him, as he beckons us and take flight. </p>
<p>This is the pride of us all, the ability to fly. </p>
<p>And Pride - eventually - will be our downfall..."</p>
<p>Notes:<br/>- Set during the war, before both factions left Cybertron</p>
<p>- The "Redline" mentioned in the tags is not identical with the Mini-con "Redline" from the Unicron Trilogy, she's a separate character sharing the name.</p>
<p>- All OC Seekers aren't really OCs, but already existing unnamed characters given names and personalities. ;) </p>
<p>- Updates slowly due to quality and time-management issues.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Bitstream/Hotlink</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Progenitor Trilogy [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2202024</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Your Mighty Wings</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>Hotlink’s personal logfile #143</em>
</p><p>"We are the Seekers. The deadly warbirds of Cybertron, the elite guardians of the Decepticon Empire. Such fancy titles for a bunch of thugs and rejects. It almost makes one’s spark swell with pride.</p><p>Talking about pride… My little optics spy the majestic frame of our esteemed leader, perching on some rubble looking over a ruined street. We all flock to him, as he beckons us and take flight.</p><p>This is the pride of us all, the ability to fly.</p><p>And Pride - eventually - will be our downfall.</p><p>Overconfidence is a vice many of us have. It tends to make us what some organics might refer to as “bird-brained”. And while I do acknowledge some of Starscream’s traits as being worthy of respect, his selfishness and his bird-brain cost him – and subsequently us, his unit – way too much in the coming millennia of war.”</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>A missile flew over Thundercracker’s cockpit as he dodged out of its way, the Aerialbots sending several others at his direction. He returned fire, sending rounds of photon bursts at them while closing the distance. Two of his underlings – A white and purple dimwit named Goosechase and a teal and black one going by Icestorm – came to his aid and forced Slingshot to add some distance between himself and the Decepticons.</p><p>“We got your back, sir!” Goosechase chimed in through the comm. system.</p><p>Thundercracker didn’t acknowledge him; he was busy focusing on the incoming shuttle on a collision course with his cockpit. He evaded it but Icestorm wasn’t so lucky. Jetfire rammed the Seeker and shot him as he spiraled down, turning the teal jet into a burst of flames and smoke.</p><p>“You piece of rusted…” Goosechase cursed and went after Jetfire who already flew past them, heading into the thick of the fight.</p><p>“Come back here, you idiot!” Thundercracker finally decided to communicate. The purple jet ignored him and opened fire on the Autobot. Unsurprisingly, that was the last thing he ever did. Another missile came from above, blowing Goosechase to shreds.</p><p>“One down, still a lot to go.” Air Raid flew past Thundercracker, cheerfully messaging him while his partners – Powerglide and Airazor – peppered him with photon bursts.</p><p> </p><p>“Goosechase and Icestorm are down! I’m taking heavy fire! Call for reinforcements!”</p><p>Starscream got his trinemate’s message while being in the middle of close combat himself, trying to catch Jetfire while evading Silverbolt and Fireflight.</p><p>“Oh, shut up, Thundercracker!” he replied “Return fire and get these rustbuckets off the sky!”</p><p>He continued to pursue his target, but pinged Skywarp just in case. He couldn’t afford to lose sight of Jetfire. He wanted to tear the traitor’s head off and put it on display.</p><p>The shuttle was heading towards another Seeker, Hotlink. Starscream didn’t waste time on alerting his subordinate, he figured the purple and black engineer will notice the enemy soon enough if he didn’t already.</p><p>Another transmission dragged him out of concentration. This time it was a situation report from the other engineer on his team, Bitstream.</p><p>“Maverick and Jetster are down. I agree with your SIC sir, we need backup or we’ll get swatted like Insecticons!”</p><p>Starscream growled in frustration. He kept losing his soldiers while the Aerialbots didn’t even suffer as much as a dent. It couldn’t go on like this forever.</p><p>“Stay in formation, and return fire!” He ordered “We still outnumber them, so I expect less whining and more shooting! Air Commander Starscream out.”</p><p> </p><p>Thundercracker was about to reply with something that would qualify as an insult under any circumstances, but he got busy trying to get away from Air Raid and his teammates. He felt just a tiny surge of relief when Skywarp teleported behind them.</p><p>“Too close for missiles, switching to guns. Eat null-ray, Autobot!”</p><p>Air Raid ducked right on cue, so the aforementioned null-ray blast hit Thundercracker instead.</p><p>“Screw you, Skywarp! That was me!” The blue jet cried over the comm.</p><p>Skywarp tilted himself to the side as if he was shrugging.</p><p>“Nah, it’s fine either way.”</p><p>Not that he wanted his brother to get hurt, but he didn’t really mind getting TC out of the way.  The blue Seeker spiraled downwards with his wing on fire, screaming profanities at both the Autobots and Skywarp on the way.</p><p>“Stop whining jackass, it’s not that bad!” he sent one last message to Thundercracker before going full speed after Air Raid.</p><p> </p><p>Hotlink was flying at full speed but he couldn’t get the large shuttle off his tailfins. He wasn’t the best of fighters, so he was desperate to find a nook or cranny among the ruins where he could hide from the Autobot scientist-turned Aerial Commander. Though he wasn’t much of a believer, he found himself praying to Primus to spare him from deactivation. He let out a loud yelp when Jetfire transformed into ‘bot-mode and jumped at him, extending a blade from his arm, ready to put it through the smaller Jet.</p><p>“Get out of the way, soldier! He’s mine!”</p><p>Starscream’s raspy voice was the last thing Hotlink heard before the blade was driven through his chassis. He immediately lost control of his systems and began to crash. He barely felt the weight of Jetfire being lifted off of him, as he involuntarily transformed back to root mode and fell.</p><p>It was surreal, like an offline hallucination. He saw the small sparks and charges flying from his wounded frame, and the error messages and warnings on his HUD framed the spinning landscape as he hit the wall of a ruined building, somersaulted into another- the impact sent a part of his left wing whirling into the distance – and finally landed on a debris filled street with full force. As he stared up at the grey sky, he saw some other jets being blown up or falling as the battle raged on. His sight became noisy, and the warnings of an imminent system crash blocked it out entirely. Hotlink went offline thinking that it will probably for the last time.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>So um... Hello! Long time Transformers fan and first time Transformers fanfic writer here. I know this first chapter is a bit hectic, but the story will not be like this the whole time. I will also try to keep the chapters short to avoid burnout, and to be able to post on a semi-regular schedule. </p><p>I hope you like it, if you do, feel free to push the heart-shaped button. :)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Your Lifeline</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>Hotlink's Personal Logfile #328</em>
</p>
<p>This was only the first of a long line of coming back online with Bitstream next to me. I never knew why he saved me back then, and no amount of nagging or threatening yielded an acceptable answer to his motives on that, even stellar-cycles later. Believe me, I tried to pry the reason from his processor, but this was one of his secrets he kept right until the end.”</p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>Hotlink came back online seeing a familiar faceplate through the graininess and messages on his HUD telling him about his systems booting up. He groaned and tried to sit, feeling a pair of stronger arms holding his back.</p>
<p>“Welcome back to the world of the living, Jetster!” The other ‘bot greeted him cheerfully.</p>
<p>“My name is Hotlink. Jetster was the lilac and white one…”</p>
<p>The other Seeker – for Hotlink finally could see him without his optics being all fuzzy – shrugged and turned back to peek out from a hole in the wall in front of him.</p>
<p>“Nah. I always get you purple ones mixed up.”</p>
<p>He turned his head back at Hotlink.</p>
<p>“Anyway, Jetfire got you good. Don’t move around much though, your t-cog is busted.”</p>
<p>As if Hotlink couldn’t feel the searing pain all through his frame where it was impaled…</p>
<p>“Yea, I feel it, thanks.”</p>
<p>He also felt a wet sensation all over his legs and his lower body.</p>
<p>“Is that…? Gee, I drained my tank did I? It’s all over the floor…”</p>
<p>The blue and white Seeker turned away from him, back to observe whatever was on the other side of the wall.</p>
<p>“Be glad you did. If you didn’t, you’d be blown up to tiny pieces not even Shockwave can put back together again*.”</p>
<p>Hotlink scooted away from the spot and got closer to the other Seeker.</p>
<p>“Anyway… Thanks for the help…?”</p>
<p>“Bitstream. And you better stop running your fuel intake. Autobots got us surrounded.”</p>
<p>They stayed in silence until a round of blaster fire punched holes into the wall next to Bitstream. He returned fire and pushed Hotlink deeper into their hidey-hole. It all became quiet after a short outburst of shots, so Hotlink tried to focus on something else than the pain and the nagging error messages on his HUD.</p>
<p>“How did the fight end? Are the others…?”</p>
<p>“Some of them are dead, yeah.” Bitstream answered without looking at him. “Most are injured and scattered around. Thundercracker sent out a distress beacon. Said to rally on his position if we still can. I was on my way when I found you.”</p>
<p>Hotlink was about to ask more questions but then another burst of photon charges tore through the wall, this time catching Bitstream in the middle. The blue Seeker fell over clutching his side where the shots hit. Hotlink fought himself to his knees and pulled Bitstream deeper into the ruined building. He felt the warmth of the other ‘con’s energon on his hand as he tried to find a way to handle him.</p>
<p>“Dammit!” Bitstream yelped.</p>
<p>“Sorry, but we gotta change position. They’re coming closer.”</p>
<p>Despite leaking badly, Bitstream wrapped his arm around Hotlink, and helped him up to stand. The world turned around the purple engineer and he relayed the latest of his diagnostic system’s warnings.</p>
<p>“Malfunction. Left actuators unresponsive, transformation cog inoperable, null-rays jammed.” He turned his head towards Bitstream with an awkward smile. “I won’t be much of a help.”</p>
<p>“To the Pit with it…” Bitstream grunted and began to drag Hotlink’s half-defunct chassis.</p>
<p>“You’re leaking.”</p>
<p>“You don’t say…”</p>
<p>They left a thick trail of energon wherever they crawled. They also heard the Autobot squad’s footsteps behind them. Bitstream stopped and aimed his own null-ray to where they crawled out from, anticipating an attack.</p>
<p>“I should patch you up… You’ll bleed out quickly if you keep on going like this.” Hotlink commented on his partner’s status.</p>
<p>“I’ll be fine.” Bitstream grumbled. “Autobrats just got lucky and probably hit a major fuel vessel. Nothing my self-repair protocols can’t handle.”</p>
<p>He was lying and both of them knew. Self-repair subroutines were effective, but they couldn’t repair major damage such as a wound from a blaster or an energy blade, especially if it hit a major fuel vessel. Bitstream stopped because he had to stop. Hotlink felt him sway lightly.</p>
<p>The Autobot squad soon caught up with them, surrounding the two badly wounded ‘cons. They were led by a small yellow scout who was pretty high on the Decepticons’ hit list despite being one of the youngest of bots ever made.</p>
<p>“Put down your weapons, and we won’t shoot you!” the little scout – Bumblebee was his designation, as Bitstream’s databank reminded him – asserted.</p>
<p>Tempting as it was, neither Bitstream nor Hotlink wanted to add treason to their otherwise lengthy list of crimes.</p>
<p>“In your offline hallucinations!” The blue Seeker spat and fired at Bumblebee but the scout was prepared for it and ducked behind a large pile of rubble.</p>
<p>Another minibot – red and even smaller than Bumblebee – returned fire, blasting another hole into Bitstream’s plating.</p>
<p>“Cease fire!”</p>
<p>The scout leader’s orders came as a surprise both for the two wounded Seekers and the rest of the Autobots.</p>
<p>“Sir, they are getting away!” The red minibot protested and shot another round after the fleeing jets.</p>
<p>Bumblebee reached out and pushed the blaster gun’s barrel down before the other scout could shoot again.</p>
<p>“Look at them, Redline! They are barely functional.”</p>
<p>“So? They shot our wounded in a flicker of an optic.”</p>
<p>Bee vented and scooted closer to Redline.</p>
<p>“We should kill them before they get fixed and return to cause trouble.” The red minibot grumbled.</p>
<p>Though he shared some of her sentiment, Bumblebee had something else in mind.</p>
<p>“Let them go, and we’ll follow them from a distance. I heard them talking about a rally point of the remaining ‘cons. It would be wiser to get all of them at once instead of wasting our already scarce resources on hunting down half-paralyzed and leaking soldiers.”</p>
<p>“But…” Redline still wasn’t entirely convinced.</p>
<p>“If you shoot them now, what makes you different from them?” Bee asked patiently. Redline put away her blaster.</p>
<p>“I guess you’re right…”</p>
<p>“Glad we could agree on that.” The scout leader vented in relief. “Now let’s follow their trail. I believe it won’t be much of a problem with all the energon they lost.”</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>It took them nearly another solar cycle to find another hideout. Bitstream risked a system shock that could end in stasis, so Hotlink insisted on stopping and burying themselves in to be able to patch up.</p>
<p>“Let me take a look at your wounds.” He demanded after Bitstream collapsed to the floor.</p>
<p>“You can’t even move one of your hands.” the blue Seeker pointed out.</p>
<p>“True, but you’ll die if I don’t stop the fuel leak. Not to mention we left a nice blue trail for the Autobots to follow.”</p>
<p>Bitstream couldn’t argue the point. He groaned frustratedly and rolled over to his side, so Hotlink could access his damaged parts more easily. He was about to go offline so he couldn’t really protest anyway.</p>
<p>“Hey, don’t power down!” Hotlink nudged him with his working hand.</p>
<p>“Sorry… I’m so tired.”</p>
<p>Hotlink popped a small welder out of his subspace and carefully pried open Bitstream’s chassis where he got hit. The painful sensation dragged the blue ‘con out of the tranquility he found himself falling into.</p>
<p>“Sorry…” Hotlink mumbled “Hey, care to tell me why you risked your life and stopped to repair me, while I repair you?”</p>
<p>“I didn’t repair you… Hnnng! Careful!” Bitstream cried out after Hotlink found his damaged fuel line.</p>
<p>“Yet I still function. And I know my self-sustain protocols can’t handle that much damage on their own.” Hotlink mused in return. “I should have been dead. But you were there and did something so I’m not.”</p>
<p>Bitstream didn’t answer. He grunted or yelped every now and then, as the purple Seeker welded his broken parts.</p>
<p>“We need numbers if we want to win.” He spoke again after a long pause. “At least ten Seekers died today. Primus knows how many of the ground forces…”</p>
<p>He fought back another pained growl as Hotlink finished his work by welding a patch of metal over the holes on Bitstream’s plating.</p>
<p>“What about “survival of the fittest”? Megatron’s idea of culling the weak from our ranks or what?” The purple engineer inquired indifferently.</p>
<p>“Mechanibull-scrap. If we don’t save who we can, we won’t have an army to fight for our cause.”</p>
<p>Bitstream finally looked up at Hotlink’s face. The purple ‘bot stared at him with a crooked smile on his lips and an otherwise unreadable expression.</p>
<p>“That’s so sentimental, but makes some sense, actually.” He leaned to the wall next to Bitstream.</p>
<p>There was a long silence between them, both of them being exhausted and barely functioning. Bitstream looked at Hotlink again, his golden optics dimming from low energy levels.</p>
<p>“Thanks for not deciding to kill me for treason.”</p>
<p>Hotlink grinned but didn’t look at the other ‘con.</p>
<p>“Oh, it crossed my processor. But then I’d have to haul my own afterburner to TC’s hideout, and fend-off any Autobots out there, so… Let’s say I share some of your sentiments.”</p>
<p> They spent the night-cycle drifting in and out of recharge, afraid of the squad of Autobots finally catching up to them. When the first light of the sunrise illuminated the ruins of Iacon, the two Seekers were limping away from their hideout, still slow and wobbly, but no longer leaving an energon trail behind them.</p>
<p>It took them a couple of cycles to reach the spot where Thundercracker’s distress beacon led them. Both of them were at the end of their energy reserves, so when Bitstream’s frame finally gave up and he fell over in stasis, dragging Hotlink along, he wasn’t surprised at all. His own systems warned him of critically low energy as well, but before everything went dark again, he recognized two brightly colored Seekers approaching.</p>
<p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>* Note: It’s nowhere mentioned officially, but since airplanes use different (more volatile) type of fuel than land vehicles, I have this headcanon of Seekers (and even Autobots with plane alt-modes) using a more volatile (much similar to raw) form of energon to function, hence their tendency to blow up more easily. </p>
<p>I'm totally wrong probably, but hey, headcanons aren't for being accurate, right?</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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